Description
While their first record explored a mythical, timeless Mediterranean as a sort of elsewherereimagining ancient musical traditions through modern styles and sensibilitiesPsych II adds a subtle political dimension and shifts the focus toward a wider, more contemporary geography.
Here, the Mediterranean becomes a modern lingua franca a fluid bridge uniting diverse peoples, cultures, and musical legacies. In this vision, the bands native Naples serves as a vibrant crossroads where sounds from North Africa and the Middle East meet the echoes of distant shores like Brazil and Colombia.
The albums core strength is the band’s mastery of restrainttheir minimalist style. Veterans Marcello Giannini, Andrea De Fazio, Paolo Petrella, and Roberto Porzioall central figures in the Neapolitan scene through projects like Parbleu, Bassolino, and the Nu Genea Live Bandexcel at creating engaging, hypnotic music defined by few elements but deep, pulsating grooves. Their sound traverses cosmic funk and desert blues, cumbia, dub, and jazz, anchored by the use of analogue synths and propulsive basslines.
The record gains further international and political weight through collaborations with Ziad Trabelsi on “Hurriya (We Must Resist),” an Anatolian-rock-style celebration of resilience and freedom with lyrics in Arabic, and MERVE (formerly of Altn Gn) on “Yallah!”, a proud unmasking of duplicity sung in Turkish and built upon the exotic rhythm of a Middle Eastern-inspired dance.
Psych II is the distillation of a journey through cultures and identities: an album where cross-pollination and a nomadic spirit become the tenets of a contemporary soundat once rooted in the Mediterranean and open to the world.
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